Whether you are a creator, an artist, a company, a brand… Having a YouTube channel has become almost a must-have to promote your work or your products & services. For some people, YouTube is a tool to earn money with videos, for others the platform offers too many disadvantages. But in any case, YouTube remains a very good marketing lever to promote yourself or your brand, if you know how to use it correctly.
If you offer streaming platforms or applications to monetize your audio or video content, having a YouTube channel in parallel can help you develop your audience. Then, you would be able to gradually convert them to a premium and paying model (or convince them to buy your products).
Here we’ll look at 7 tips to boost your YouTube channel, ranked in order of importance (in our opinion):
1/ Collaborate with other YouTubers
This is THE technique to make your YouTube channel take off drastically. Find a YouTuber who addresses the same target as yours and who already has a significant audience (without necessarily being a direct competitor on the type of content) and propose to make a video together.
This way, their community will be able to discover your content and potentially subscribe to your channel.
The hardest part is to convince the most popular YouTubers to collaborate with you. Think out of the box: bring a counterpart, for example, a special talent, access to infrastructure or equipment, or a network (you can put them in touch with people in your network who could interest them). If you do all the work: writing the video content, taking care of the logistics of the shoot, etc. you will increase your chances of getting a positive response
Work on your approach and personalize it,. It will always be more effective than sending massive non-personal requests.
2/ Publish videos regularly on YouTube
Resilience is one of the important keys to growing your YouTube channel. You need to post videos frequently on the platform. This regular posting has 2 virtues:
- Showing the YouTube algorithm that you are creating content regularly and seriously (and therefore YouTube visitors will find content in quantity and quality, and will be more likely to come back)
- Reassure your subscribers that you will be able to provide them with content. Your potential fans may get frustrated if it’s been months or years since you last posted a video.
Keeping a regular rhythm, for example, posting a video every Thursday on your Youtube channel, is a good start.
3/ Generate engagement and interact with your audience
Engagement marks (like, dislike, shares, comments) have a strong influence on the SEO of a video on YouTube. So don’t be afraid to be divisive in your content in order to generate engagement from your audience to move up in the search results.
Then, of course, you will have to interact with your community within the comments section, and in particular, respond to the different comments (positive and negative) with respect and kindness.
You should also encourage discussion by asking your audience directly what they are interested in, what they like, by asking them to suggest ideas or to share your videos with their friends. Another way to interact is to organize a contest where you ask your audience to answer in video and integrate their answers in one of your contents. You can also use other networks, such as Instagram polls, and take the results of the votes in a YouTube video.
4/ Boost the design of your YouTube channel
For some, it may seem like a detail, but the professional design of your channel plays a role in building loyalty and therefore increasing your audience. Think about what you want visitors to feel when they visit your channel: it should be consistent with your brand or personality, and above all, it should be clear, aesthetic, and professional.
On your YouTube channel, pay special attention to :
- The cover photo of the channel ;
- The profile picture (or logo);
- The thumbnails of your videos;
Do not hesitate to use tools like https://www.canva.com/ to create your visuals very easily, using existing templates.
5/ Work on the title of your YouTube videos
As in the articles of a blog, where the title is the key to SEO, it is the same for Youtube. If you want to increase the number of your subscribers on Youtube and get more views, you have to choose carefully the keyword you will put in each Youtube video. A very good free tool is the Google Adwords keyword planner: it allows you to find keywords that are searched a lot: avoid general keywords that are too much searched, and prefer niche keywords to position yourself better.
Also, take advantage of trends. Often, a current topic can create a buzz. By making a video on the subject with a catchy title that includes the keywords, you could well be positioned in the first results and reach a large audience.
6/ Translate and subtitle your video
It can be interesting to translate videos that have worked well on your channel into another language. Ideally in English, if it is not the original language of the video. Otherwise, choose a language with an interesting potential audience.
YouTube offers automatic translation, the quality of which varies greatly since they are translations made using machine learning tools. Another option is to have your video translated by professionals, tools like Fiverr allow you to find low-cost translators. You can of course do it yourself, the YouTube studio subtitle creation tool is very handy for that.
7/ Take advantage of the cards and end screens
The cards and end screens that you can embed within your YouTube videos allow you to link to other content. These elements help enrich the experience or complement the content of your videos. You can also use them to promote or share your official website or your own streaming platform.
By encouraging your audience to watch more of your content, you increase the time spent on your channel, and therefore your SEO.
Keep in mind, however, that YouTube has many drawbacks, such as
- Competing contents suggested just right next to yours
- The impossibility to get your subscribers’ data
- And more generally, the sovereignty over your channel, your contents, and your audience
and many others…
If you are a content creator or a brand, and you want to broadcast your content on your own platform and keep all the data while controlling your audience and your monetization, OKAST can allow you to create your own streaming platform or application in a few clicks.
Contact us at hello@okast.tv